My take: My Sister's Keeper (2009)

HD Goofnut

Title: My Sister's Keeper (2009)
BD-25 Single-Layer Disc/Two Disc Set
Video: 1080p/VC-1
Audio: 5.1 Dolby TrueHD
Aspect Ratio: 2:40:1
Subtitles: English and French
Run time: 109 minutes
Studio: New Line Cinema
Rating: PG-13
Region Coding: Region Free
Player used for review: LG BH200

Cast/Crew Info:
Abigail Breslin as Andromeda 'Anna' Fitzgerald
Sofia Vassilieva as Kate Fitzgerald
Cameron Diaz as Sara Fitzgerald
Heather Wahlquist as Aunt Kelly
Jason Patric as Brian Fitzgerald
Evan Ellingson as Jesse Fitzgerald
Alec Baldwin as Campbell Alexander
Directed by Nick Cassavetes

My take: (the breakdown)

I basically ended up renting this for my wife who commented that she wanted to see this when we saw the trailer for it several months ago. I worked in a bookstore for a couple years a few years ago Picoult is one of those authors that does appeal to men, similar to Nicholas Sparks. From my research the movie follows the book rather closely. It opens with Anna Fitzgerald (that girl from Signs) laying out their family's situation. Her older sister Katehas fought Lukemia for about 10 years and Anna lets us know that she was artificially conceived to provide tissue/organs for Kate. When Kate begins to suffer from renal failure they want to remove one of Anna's kidneys so that it can save Kate. Anna voices her opinion that she is tired of being operated on and finds a lawyer to become medically emanciapted. However, even with all this there are some other unforseen elements that the parents don't discover until much later. This is a rather depressing movie, but I will say that it is worth a rental just because of the great acting involved.

Let me first point out that this is not a bad transfer, but I have seen many newer releases that look a lot better. Colors are muted for the majority of the film, but there are a few scenes where they come alive. Flesh tones seem to lean towards the red/orange side of things, but I imagine that was intentional. Because of the director's artistic choices the image seems rather flat for most of the run time because of the muted colors. Grain is extremely light and in some scenes is not even noticeable. Fine detail is above average for the most part, but there are just a couple softer shots. I also did spot a few instances of edge enhancement now and again. Again, this is an above average transfer, but it just doesn't compare to many of the other newer releases out there.

We are suppled with a rather subdued 5.1 Dolby TrueHD track. Other than maybe five minutes worth this movie is nothing but dialogue and music. The dialogue is clear and perfectly understandable during the entire run time though. I found the surrounds to get zero attention even from the musical score, which I found strange. Most dramas have musical scores that swell into the surrounds, but not with this and because of this this primarily a front heavy mix. You might as well forget that your sub exists for this title as well.

Fans of Picoult's book and the movie itself will be let down by this supplemental package. We first get a 14 minute making of feature presented in 1080, which is basically just an advertisement for the movie. We also get 16 minutes worth of deleted scenes that are presented in 480. Finally we get a digital copy of the film on a second disc.

Movie: 6.5/10
VQ: 8/10
AQ: 7.5/10
Supplements: 2/10
Final word: Worth A Rental

As always thanks for reading folks.

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PrinceLH

Saw this flick, thanks to my wife, when it hit the theatres. Too bad the ending did not correspond with the book. It would have made a better movie, if they had stayed with the original ending.

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